Woody Guthrie Quotes

One day we'll all find out that all of our songs was just little notes in a great big song!

Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it like you find it. You got to change with it. If a day goes by that don't change some of your old notions for new ones, that is just about like trying to milk a dead cow.

Love is the only medicine I believe in.

You can't write a good song about a whorehouse unless you've been in one.

I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.

I have decided long ago that my songs and ballads would not get the hugs and kisses of the capitalistic experts.

Yes, I'd give my life to lay my head tonight
On a bed of California stars

I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I aint a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns.

You oil field workers, come and listen to me I'm goin' to tell you a story about old John D. That company union made a fool out of me. That company union don't charge no dues It leaves you a-singing them Rockefeller blues. That company union made a fool out of me. Takes that good ole C.I.O., boys To keep that oil a-rollin', rollin' over the sea. Takes that good ole C.I.O., boys To keep that oil a-rollin' over the sea.

It's round the world I've traveled; it's round the world I've roamed; but I've yet to see an outlaw drive a family from its home

A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or it could be
who's hungry and where their mouth is or
who's out of work and where the job is or
who's broke and where the money is or
who's carrying a gun and where the peace is.

Let me be known as just the man that told you something you already knew.

I got started in Oklahoma. That's where I was born. Population down there is one-third Indians, one-third Negroes and one-third white people.

Now as I look around, it's mighty plain to see,
This world is such a great and a funny place to be.
Oh, the gamblin' man is rich, an' the workin' man is poor,
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

If you want to learn something, just steal it.

Some men rob you with a six-gun
others rob you with a fountain pen.

I ain't a Communist necessarily, but I have been in the red all my life.

It's a folk singer's job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people

All of my words, if not well put or well taken, are well meant.

A song ain't nothing but a conversation fixed up to where you can talk it over and over without getting tired of it.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island
From the Redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.

The words are the important thing. Don't worry about tunes. Take a tune, sing high when they sing low, sing fast when they sing slow, and you've got a new tune.

Left wing, chicken wing, it don't make no difference to me.

All about a human being is, it's a great big hoping machine.

I know the police cause you trouble They cause trouble everywhere But when you die and go to heaven You find no policeman there

Now as through this world I ramble, I see lots of funny men, Some rob you with a six gun, And some with a fountain pen.

As I went walking That ribbon of highway I saw above me The endless skyway I saw below me The lonesome valley This land was made for you and me.

You will never find peace with these fascists
You'll never find friends such as we
So remember that valley of Jarama
And the people that'll set that valley free.
From this valley they say we are going
Do not hasten to bid us adieu
Even though we lost the battle at Jarama
We'll set this valley before we're through.
All this world is like this valley called Jarama
So green and so bright and so fair
No fascists can dwell in our valley
Nor breathe in our new freedoms air.

The best way to get to know any bunch of people is to go and listen to their music.

All of my words, if not well put nor well taken, are well meant.

If we fix it so's you can't make money on war, we'll all forget what we're killing folks for.

One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple, by the Relief Office, I saw my people -As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if God blessed America for me.

We're to blame because we let them steal," she told him.
"Let them? We caused 'em to steal?"
"Yes. We caused them to steal. Penny at a time. Nickel at a time. Dime. A quarter. A dollar. We were easy going. We were good-natured. We didn't want money just for the sake of having money. We didn't want other folks' money If it meant they had to do without. We smiled across their counters a penny at a time. We smiled in through their cages a nickel at a time. We handed a quarter out our front door. We handing them money along the street. We signed our names to their old papers. We didn't want money, so we didn't steal money, and we spoiled them, we petted them, and we humored them. We let them steal from us. We knew that they were hooking us. We knew it. We knew when they jacked up their prices. We knew when they cut down on the price of our work. We knew that. We knew they were stealing. We taught them how to steal. We let them. We let them think they they could cheat us because we are just plain old common everyday people. They got the habit."
"They really got the habit," Tike said.
"Like dope. Like whiskey. Like tobacco. Like snuff. Like morphine or opium or old smoke of some kind. They got the regular habit of taking us for damned old silly fools."
House of Earth Woody Guthrie

This machine kills fascists.

Left wing, right wing, chicken wing.

If you walk across my camera I will flash the world your story.

I love a good man outside the law, just as much as I hate a bad man inside the law.

Do Re Mi
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see,
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do re mi

Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.